Mykola Ridnyi and Serhiy Zhadan

Mykola Ridnyi

Born 1985 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where he currently lives and works. He graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. In 2005 he became co-founder and curator of the gallery-laboratory SOSka, an artist-run space for developing the local culture sphere in Kharkiv. Ridnyi was shortlisted for the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2011 and 2013.

Winner of the numerous prizes and awards: the PinchukArtCentre Prize 2013, the Kazimir Malevich Artist Award, the Sergey Kuryokhin Modern Art Award for Public Art, the Grand Prix of the Kyiv Sculpture Project (all 2012), as well as the PinchukArtCentre Special Prize (2011).

Serhiy Zhadan

Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast. He graduated from Kharkiv University in 1996, then spent three years as a graduate student of philology. He taught Ukrainian and world literature from 2000 to 2004, and thereafter retired from teaching. He lives and works in Kharkiv. His own works have been translated into German, English, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, Swedish and Czech. Zhadan collaborated with Kharkiv-based music band Luk and Sobaky v Kosmosi.